Identification, quantification and analysis of observable anthropogenic debris along swiss river and lakes (IQAASL)

IQAASL is a project sponsored by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment to quantify shoreline trash along swiss lakes and rivers. Multiple small scale litter surveys are completed at different locations within a designated survey area. For the year 2020/2021 the survey areas were defined by the municipalities that border the Aare, Rhône, Ticino and Linth/Limmat rivers and any lakes or rivers that contribute to one of these rivers.

What is a litter survey?

A litter survey is the identification and count of all anthropogenic objects found within a delimited area, in this study all surveys were bordered on one side by water (a river or lake). Each object is placed into one of 260 categories¹. The location, date, survey dimensions and the total number of objects in each category is noted.

Purpose of the surveys

The survey results help ALL stakeholders identify the items that make up the mass of trash found in the natural environment and where those objects are most likely to be found. The surveys answer the following questions:

  • What items are found?
    • The most abundant objects from the water feature and the survey area sorted by total object count
  • How much is found ? (total weights and item counts)
    • Total object count, total weight and weight of plastics
  • How often are these items found?
    • How often the most abundant items were identified
  • Where do you find the most?
    • Pieces of trash per meter (pcs/m): the ratio of number of objects found to the length of the shoreline for each survey location

These are the most frequently asked questions and should be considered when determining any mitigation or reduction strategies.

Assumptions:

  • The more trash there is on the ground the more a person is likely to find
  • The survey results represent the minimum amount of trash at that site²
  • For each survey: finding one item does not effect the chance of finding another³

Purpose of this report

Summarize the results for the water feature and define the magnitude of those results with respect to the rest of the survey area.

Contents of this report

Scope: description of water feature

  • survey locations
  • lakes and rivers
  • municipalities and effected population

Survey dimensions: locations, aggregated totals

  • weights and measures: cumulative
  • weights and measures: cumulative by survey location
  • survey totals by location: pcs/m by date
  • material type: % of total

Trash removed: the most abundant objects

  • the most common objects from the survey area
  • the most common objects from all the survey areas
  • pcs/m of most common objects for all survey locations of the water feature

Trash removed: the most frequent

  • The rate at which the most frequent objects were identified

Trash removed: utility

  • utility classification: % total of all objects found

Annex

  • effective data: report of missing records
  • correlation of results to local conditions
  • survey location coordinates
  • itemized list of objects removed

More information

For more information about the project visit project home.

If you would like more information about this survey area please contact:

  1. Swiss federal office for the environment - Municipal waste section
  2. analyst@hammerdirt.ch

¹ The EU guide on monitoring marine litter
² There is most likely more trash at the survey site, but certainly not less than what was recorded.
³ Independent observations : stats stackexchange

Results: Brienzersee

Scope

Survey locations, municipalities

For the period between 2020-01 and 2021-04, 974 objects were removed and identified in the course of 5 surveys. Those surveys were conducted at 3 different locations. There are 2 different municipalities represented in these results with a combined population of approximately 5,628

The municipalities in this report:

Brienz (BE), Bönigen

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Survey dimensions, location and aggregated totals.

Cumulative totals all data

The cumulative results from 5 samples, weights are in kilograms, time is in hours

index # samples pieces of trash meters surveyed m² surveyed total weight plastic > 5mm weight plastic < 5mm weight labor hours
summary total
Brienzersee 5 974 230 1,143 2 1.97 0.16 17.0

Cumulative totals by water feature

# samples pieces of trash meters surveyed m² surveyed total weight plastic > 5mm weight plastic < 5mm weight labor hours
location
Häfeli 2 277 86 471 0 0.36000 0.000045 7
Oben am see 1 319 64 256 0 0.53500 0.000790 3
Wycheley 2 378 80 416 1 1.07712 0.160000 7

Survey totals and material type

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The most abundant objects

Combined, the ten most abundant objects from Brienzersee represent 73% of all objects found on Brienzersee.

Of the most abundant objects on Brienzersee, 6 are also among the most abundant in the Aare survey area.

  1. Cigarette butts and filters
  2. Industrial sheeting
  3. Expanded polystyrene
  4. Fragmented plastics
  5. Industrial pellets (nurdles)
  6. Food wrappers; candy, snack packaging

The most abundant objects: results by survey location

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How often are these objects found?

Some objects are found often and in elevated quantities, others are found often and in small quantities and some objects are found less often but in large quantities. Knowing the diffference can help find the sources.

The number of surveys where at least one of the most abundant objects were found

Note The survey area results include the results from the current water feature

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Utility: percent of total objects collected

The utility type is based on the utilisation of the object prior to it being discarded. Objects that are found are placed into to one of the 260 categories. Those categories are grouped according to utilisation.

For example, a piece of plastic could be placed into the category 'Fragmented plastics', depending on its size. However, a piece of plastic that was once a bucket and we know this because we are familiar with either the brand or the product or if we recognize it as a piece of a bucket it is placed in the code for buckets⁸.

  • wastewater: items released from water treatment plants includes items likely toilet flushed
  • micro plastics (< 5mm): fragmented plastic items and pre-production plastic resins
  • infrastructure: items related to construction and maintenance of all infratructure items
  • food and drink: primarily single use plastic items related to consuming food and drinks outdoors
  • agriculture: primarily industrial sheeting includes mulch films
  • tobacco: primarily cigarette ends includes all smoking related material
  • recreation: includes fishing, hunting, boating and beach related objects, excludes food, drink and tobacco items
  • packaging non food and drink: packaging or wrapping material not identified as food, drink nor tobacco related
  • plastic fragments: foam and plastic fragments of indeterminate origin and use
  • personal items: accessories, hygiene and clothing related

⁸ See the annex for the complete list of objects identified, includes category and group classification - the code for a buckets is G57

More information

Contact analyst@hammerdirt.ch for any questions about the content of this report. If you would like a report for your municipality contact the Swiss federal office for the environment: Municipal waste section.

Have a great day

This project was made possible by the Swiss federal office for the environment.
This document originates from https://github.com/hammerdirt-analyst/iqals all copyrights apply.
roger@hammerdirt.ch pushed the run button on 2021-05-25.

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Annex

  1. Effective data
  2. Correlation of results
  3. Survey location GPS
  4. Inventory of all objects removed

Effective data

The data is submitted in two parts. If a survey is missing either part we check the paper records and update when possible.

All the surveys found a home in the dimensional data

All dimensional records found a home in the survey data!

Correlation of results to local conditions

The survey results for the most abundant objects were ranked against population and three other criteria for each survey location. Within a radius of 1500m of each survey location the following characteristics were calculated:

  • buildings: m² of surface area attributed to buildings

  • streets: length in meters of all roads

  • number of stream/river discharge points

The three attributes were evaluated seperately and combined - urbanization. Urbanization is the weighted value of the sum of population, buildings and streets for each survey. The values were evaluated using the Spearmans rank correlation with p= 0.1. The results can be interpreted in the following way:

  • " + " - positive correlation: the chances of finding the object and the quantity found were increased as the amount of the attrubute increased within 1500m the survey area.

  • " - " - negative correlation: neither the chances or the quantity of finding the object found were increased by this attribute, and previously it was found in greater quantities when this atribute was minimized within 1500m of the survey area.

  • " NA " - no effect: there is no statistical basis to reject a null effect by this attribute based on the current results.

Important! Results vary for each location and at each survey. A correlation is not a sign of causation.

Annex

Survey locations

latitude longitude city water_name
location
Häfeli 46.690283 7.898592 Bönigen Brienzersee
Oben am see 46.744451 8.049921 Brienz (BE) Brienzersee
Wycheley 46.740370 8.048640 Brienz (BE) Brienzersee

Annex

Inventory of all items

item quantity % of total utility % of samples
code
Gfrags Fragmented plastics 151 15.5 plastic pieces 100.0
G67 Industrial sheeting 120 12.3 agriculture 100.0
G112 Industrial pellets (nurdles) 114 11.7 micro plastics (< 5mm) 60.0
G27 Cigarette butts and filters 102 10.5 tobacco 60.0
G30 Food wrappers; candy, snack packaging 72 7.4 food and drink 100.0
Gfoam Expanded polystyrene 61 6.3 infrastructure 100.0
G944 Pellet mass from injection molding 32 3.3 not classified 20.0
G89 Plastic construction waste 25 2.6 infrastructure 60.0
G21 Drink lids 21 2.2 food and drink 60.0
G95 Cotton bud/swab sticks 15 1.5 waste water 100.0
G106 Plastic fragments angular <5mm 14 1.4 micro plastics (< 5mm) 20.0
G943 Fencing agriculture, plastic 13 1.3 not classified 40.0
G74 Insulation: includes spray foams and foam board 12 1.2 infrastructure 80.0
G32 Toys and party favors 11 1.1 recreation 80.0
G941 Packaging plastic nonfood or unknown 10 1.0 packaging non food 40.0
G24 Lid/cap rings from plastic bottles/containers 10 1.0 food and drink 80.0
G927 String trimmer line, used to cut grass, weeds,... 10 1.0 not classified 80.0
G904 Fireworks; rocket caps, exploded parts & packa... 10 1.0 recreation 40.0
G10 Food containers single use foamed or plastic 9 0.9 food and drink 40.0
G908 Tape; electrical, insulating 9 0.9 infrastructure 40.0
G23 Lids unidentified 9 0.9 packaging non food 40.0
G936 Sheeting ag. greenhouse film 8 0.8 agriculture 40.0
G65 Buckets 7 0.7 agriculture 40.0
G90 Plastic flower pots 7 0.7 agriculture 40.0
G70 Shotgun cartridges 6 0.6 recreation 80.0
G942 Plastic shavings from lathes, CNC machining 6 0.6 not classified 20.0
G928 Ribbons and bows 6 0.6 not classified 20.0
G25 Tobacco; plastic packaging, containers 6 0.6 tobacco 60.0
G3 Bags; plastic shopping/carrier/grocery and pieces 5 0.5 packaging non food 40.0
G156 Paper fragments 5 0.5 not classified 20.0
G153 Cups, food containers, wrappers (paper) 5 0.5 food and drink 20.0
G50 String < 1cm 5 0.5 recreation 40.0
G117 Styrofoam < 5mm 4 0.4 micro plastics (< 5mm) 20.0
G22 Lids for chemicals, detergents (non-food) 4 0.4 infrastructure 20.0
G33 Cups, lids, single use foamed and hard plastic 4 0.4 food and drink 40.0
G66 Straps/bands; hard, plastic package fastener 4 0.4 infrastructure 40.0
G152 Cigarette boxes, tobacco related paper/cardboard 3 0.3 tobacco 20.0
G6 Bottles and containers, plastic non food/drink 3 0.3 packaging non food 20.0
G35 Straws and stirrers 3 0.3 food and drink 60.0
G177 Foil wrappers, aluminum foil 3 0.3 food and drink 40.0
G131 Rubber bands 3 0.3 personal items 40.0
G146 Paper, cardboard 3 0.3 packaging non food 20.0
G31 Lollypop sticks 3 0.3 food and drink 40.0
G176 Cans, food 2 0.2 food and drink 20.0
G125 Balloons and balloon sticks 2 0.2 recreation 20.0
G213 Paraffin wax 2 0.2 recreation 40.0
G931 Tape-caution for barrier, police, construction... 2 0.2 infrastructure 20.0
G100 Medical; containers/tubes/ packaging 2 0.2 waste water 40.0
G4 Small plastic bags; freezer, zip-lock etc. 2 0.2 packaging non food 20.0
G178 Metal bottle caps, lids & pull tabs from cans 2 0.2 food and drink 40.0
G2 Bags 2 0.2 packaging non food 20.0
G200 Glass or ceramic drink bottles, pieces 2 0.2 food and drink 20.0
G922 Labels, bar codes 2 0.2 packaging non food 40.0
G37 Mesh bags 1 0.1 not classified 20.0
G96 Sanitary-pads/panty liners/tampons 1 0.1 waste water 20.0
G165 Ice cream sticks, toothpicks, chopsticks 1 0.1 food and drink 20.0
G159 Corks 1 0.1 food and drink 20.0
G158 Other paper items 1 0.1 not classified 20.0
G59 Fishing line monofilament (angling) 1 0.1 recreation 20.0
G182 Fishing; hooks, weights, lures, sinkers etc. 1 0.1 recreation 20.0
G124 Other plastic or foam products 1 0.1 not classified 20.0
G64 Fenders 1 0.1 not classified 20.0
G12 Cosmetics, non-beach use personal care containers 1 0.1 personal items 20.0
G914 Paperclips, clothespins, plastic utility items 1 0.1 personal items 20.0
G175 Cans, beverage 1 0.1 food and drink 20.0
G134 Other rubber 1 0.1 not classified 20.0
G34 Cutlery, plates and trays 1 0.1 food and drink 20.0
G211 Other medical items (swabs, bandaging, adhesiv... 1 0.1 personal items 20.0
G913 Pacifier 1 0.1 personal items 20.0
G201 Jars, glass or pottery, includes pieces 1 0.1 not classified 20.0
G93 Cable ties; steggel, zip, zap straps 1 0.1 infrastructure 20.0
G901 Mask medical, synthetic 1 0.1 personal items 20.0
G917 Terracotta balls 1 0.1 not classified 20.0
G155 Fireworks paper tubes and fragments 1 0.1 recreation 20.0